Though light on songs with only three numbers, this week’s episode was heavy on the action as Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel) decided to come back to Lima, Mckinley High specifically, so she could make amends for her mistakes. But that meant complicated feelings for her biological daughter Rachel, as well as for Quinn and Puck, the parents of the baby she adopted. (Remember baby Beth? Glad to see that the show does too. How cute is she?) Meanwhile, both Kurt’s run for class president and his attempt to get the Tony role in the school production of West Side Storyhit a snag on the issue of his… well, his perceived manliness.

Brittany really wanted to manage Kurt’s run for class president because she felt that his uniqueness made him a rare wonderful creature, like a unicorn. So along came the handmade bright pink and glitter posters and a swag bag that looked like a 5-year-old’s My Little Pony dream/nightmare exploded in it. Kurt Hummel’s Bulging Pink Fun Sack, filled with ruby slippers  and the like, was so over the top that Kurt called it too gay, saying that he didn’t want to be known as the “h” word.  (Glee may be able to say it but I sure won’t. I will say that I would love to find that unicorn headband that Brittany wore. So send me links if you find one like it.)

And even though he gave a killer performance, the play’s new directors (Coach Beiste, Emma, and Artie taking over for Schuester) questioned if Kurt could be butch enough to convincingly carry off the lead. After a botched attempt to change their minds by playing Romeo (Dude, showing up in tights and spouting Olde English was never going to help your cause with these guys), Kurt fretted that he’d never get to play coveted male leading roles as an actor. Of course, a no-holds-barred pep talk from everyone’s favorite dad, Burt, got Kurt back in a positive mood as he seemed to consider the idea that he might need to create the roles he wants rather than relying on fitting a certain mold. But that good mood disappeared when boyfriend Blaine’s amazing rendition of “Something’s Coming” caused the directors to ask him to read for the lead role instead of the supporting ones.

Shelby, hired by Sugar’s dad to start a second show choir at McKinley just for the tone-deaf student, also gave her bio-daughter a pep talk (“You will never become a star or get the lead if you play it safe”) and an audition song suggestion. And the combined  power of those two onstage singing “Somewhere There’s a Place for Us,” even briefly, was mesmerizing.

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We have to admit — despite being huge fans of Idina Menzel, we were skeptical when her extended “Glee” arc was announced this season, particularly after Ryan Murphy insisted that he was nixing the stunt guest star appearances.

But after seeing her first appearance in the Tuesday, Sept 27 episode, we’re once again sold on Shelby Corcoran. Menzel fits seamlessly into the “Glee” universe and serves to enhance the stories of the regular cast, rather than hog screen time from them.

Shelby is once again a foil to Will (Matthew Morrison), as she’s been hired to lead a competing show choir group at McKinley High. These two are worthy adversaries, and we’re looking forward to seeing how Shelby fits into the teacher’s lounge lunch group. We can’t wait to see her go toe-to-toe with Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) in particular.

As Rachel’s birth mother, Shelby also shares a bittersweet story with Lea Michele‘s character. We’re not sure where this one is going — we’re sort of hoping it leads to meeting Rachel’s dads — but we do love any opportunity to see Michele and Menzel perform together. This week, they sang “Somewhere There’s A Place For Us,” a particularly emotional choice given the current nature of their relationship.

The most important Shelby storyline, however, involves Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Puck (Mark Salling). Of course, Shelby adopted their biological daughter, Beth, at the end of Season 1. Now that she’s back in Ohio, she invites Quinn and Puck to be a part of Beth’s life on the condition that Quinn, who now smokes like a chimney and happily refers to herself as a skank, cleans up her act. After a little bit of a wake-up call from Will, Quinn washes the Manic Panic out of her hair and shows up to glee rehearsal looking as prim as ever.

It’s only once she’s been welcomed back into the group that her intention is revealed: She’s going to fake the good-girl act long enough to, she hopes, regain full custody of Beth.

Good luck with that.

Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know what you thought of Menzel’s return to McKinley High! Is she a welcome addition to the cast?

Saturday’s Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra concert with Idina Menzel brought an odd situation, one I never remember encountering before. The page detailing her concert had been torn from all the programs.

An usher slipped me a bootleg copy. He explained: “She didn’t want people to know what songs she was going to sing. She wanted it to be a surprise.”

If that was the reason, I liked it. I like surprises myself. And Menzel gave us plenty of them.

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Indulge me for a moment: I want to call attention to the fact that a visit to Kleinhans for a buzzworthy show is an awesome experience.  I’m not even referring to the actual performance by Idina Menzel on Saturday night with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (which was great—more on that in a second)—I mean the whole set-up.

Getting dressed up for a night out.  The heavy traffic on Porter Street around Symphony Circle.  Walking through those West Side streets, women’s heels clicking on the sidewalk.  Joining the flow of people into the Saarinen-designed concert hall.  Feeling like you’re stepping back into the 1940s.

A drink in the foyer, quick to finish when the seating bell rings.  Find your seat with directions from a dapper usher.  All so pleasantly retro.  Delightful.

Idina Menzel is a Broadway actress whose celebrity bona fides were established in such high-profile shows as Rent and Wicked.  She’s also a legitimate TV star based on her supporting role in Glee.  Her appearance as the opening act in the BPO’s 2011-2012 Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Western New York Pops Series drew a house that appeared to be within a few dozen seats of a sellout, and that crowd—bolstered by a heavy teenage and young adult presence—was loud, proud and without reservation in their appreciation.

Menzel burst onstage like a ray of sunshine in her flowing canary-yellow, shoulder-less frock.  She opened with “The Life of the Party” from The Wild Party, a production that earned her a Drama Desk nomination in 2000.  Following some banter with the audience (including a winning moment in which she hustled to stage left, announcing “I’m going to stand over here, where all these boys are,” drawing a raucous ovation from that group of admirers), she transitioned into “I’m Not That Girl” from Wicked.

Menzel, the original Elphaba in the Broadway and West End productions of the show, was playfully modest.

“Oh, you saw it?” she asked.  “I was the green one.”

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The Boston Pops Orchestra kicked off its 125^th Anniversary Celebration in grand style on Tuesday night at Symphony Hall, featuring horse-drawn carriages, balloons, and a vintage fire engine carrying Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart and Peter Fiedler, son of the late Arthur Fiedler who led the Pops for fifty years. The festivities included a champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception prior to the start of the three-part concert honoring the legacies of the orchestra’s most famous conductors, Fiedler, John Williams, and Lockhart.

The Arthur Fiedler (1930-1979) segment began with the rousing patriotic “National Emblem March” by E. E. Bagley and “Light Cavalry Overture” by Franz von Suppé before Maestro Lockhart took the microphone to welcome everyone and explain the evening’s format. He then introduced Concertmaster Tamara Smirnova as solo violin for Jacob Gade’s “Jalousie,” an oft-performed piece during the Fiedler years. Up next, Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter,” accompanied by an amusing film montage of Fiedler in action, edited in time to the music by Dick Bartlett and Susan Dangel. It brought back great memories of what a showman he was and received a warm response from the audience. The orchestra closed the set with a perfect rendition of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” featuring Michael Chertock as piano soloist.

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Idina Menzel made her Texas debut Thursday night at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and impressed the 2000+ people in attendance so much that she was called out for two encores.

Menzel’s Dallas stop is just the third city of a year-long symphony tour that will criss-cross the United States, hitting 17 different cities.  Backed by local symphonies – in this case, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rei Hotoda – Menzel is covering a spectrum of songs from her career and beyond in a setlist that evolves with each performance.

The show opened with a Broadway-themed journey of show tunes from some of Menzel’s favorite musicals – West Side Story, A Chorus Line, and Porgy & Bess.
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Idina Menzel showed some “Wicked” ways with the PSO.

Pittsburg Post Gazette – July 1, 2010